“I loved it with an intense love… I took the idea of hobbits from the village people and children.” JRR Tolkien.

It is at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, amongst the magnificent ruins of the castle, that you will find the remains of the royal apartments built 1373-80 by one of England’s most flamboyant characters, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third son of King Edward III.     When John of Gaunt’s first…

John Harman, who became Bishop Vesey, left a unique legacy. He was born at Moor Hall Farm in Sutton Coldfield, the son of a farmer, 550 years ago. He became a visionary developer, planner, Bishop, and Statesman, who attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold summit in France, with…

Under the Localism Act 2011, a town council may produce a development plan for its area. This has implications for big cities containing historic towns and villages that wish to assert their identity, or which wish to make decisions more locally. 

Tesco is a part of Britain’s geography, with a store in every postcode area, but now that profits have fallen for the first time in twenty years, the supermarket giant is asking itself, what do we stand for?

You are invited to dinner in the shadow of Augustus Pugin at Saint Mary’s Convent, Lozells, Birmingham

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a charge on new development to fund infrastructure that the local community wants.

At Canon’s Ashby, an Elizabethan manor house in Northamptonshire, wall paintings dating from the late 1500s have been discovered behind timber panelling added in the early 1700s. The wall paintings include a depiction of the story from the Old Testament in 1 Kings, Chapter 13, when the evil king Jeroboam is denounced by…

After the horrors of the First World, there was a renewed interest in Britain’s heritage and a desire to create a land fit for heroes. It was a time of hope and renewal. The increasingly mobile British public embraced the idea of a day out at a historic site, but…

Historic English country houses can find themselves providing a dramatic stage for the life of cities that have grown up around them, as with Grade I listed Aston Hall, a fine Jacobean mansion that now finds itself in inner city Birmingham. Such historic houses help city dwellers to connect with…